March 2005

Thursday, March 31, 2005

I have an essay, Judging Mentally, posted at AbsoluteWrite.com today. The essay originated as a rant, right here in my blog, about being rejected from Slamdance and morphed into a first person account of writing, rejection, and picking up the pieces.

Sometimes I think I truly have a problem. Not only must I write, but I must write about the process of writing.

I also have my latest colum, Operating in the Negative, published at Literary Mama. In this one, I ponder the value of the work I provide as a mother and as a writer, and whether it adds up to anything at all.

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

I spent all day yesterday editing my short film. After a year, it's
time to get that baby finished. My lead actor e-mailed me and
requested a copy weeks ago, but with the dreaded "Rotating Colds of
2005" and 1 million other tasks, I got distracted.

So yesterday, both kids were back in school. And after a run to Home
Depot first thing, I settled into my home office. I proceeded to edit
my film from about 10:00 a.m. (Monday) until 1 a.m. (Tuesday morning), only taking
breaks long enough to pee, eat, and pick up the kids from school. The sound is still a mess, and I need to get a professional sound edit, but I tweaked as much as I could so that my actor could get a "rough edit".

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

We're on Round 3 of the "Rotating Cold of 2005" and so for the third week in a row I'm more or less on "house arrest" with a sick child. Makes it difficult to do anything -- can't even go food shopping.

I actually had to run to the accountant yesterday with SICK CHILD in tow. I was pulled over by a cop for speeding on one of our local residential roads. It was my FIRST TIME EVER being stopped by a cop. He was like, '"I pulled you over for going 40 in a 25. Is there a reason you are speeding?" and I was all like, "No, I just didn't realize I was going that fast..." I totally played it cool.

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

So, in the fall, I wrote an original pilot for a glitzy Soap Opera, called "Shooting Stars" about a Britney
Spears-like celebrity/entertainer who shocks the world with her
elopement in Vegas. I wrote the script in about two weeks from the
time the characters popped in my head -- to the point where I wrote
FADE OUT.

I then excitedly sent it out to many, many TV Writing Contests.
The rejections starting coming fast and furious. I was told the
characters were "too unlikeable" by one contest and told by another
that the lead was "too goody two shoes and too likeable." I was told that the writing was "professional" and "real" but that the characters were underdeveloped. I was also told that one judge was annoyed by my misuse of commas.